Analysing the first three novels of Attilâ İlhan in the context of the formational strucuralism

Attilâ İlhan's first novels, Sokaktaki Adam (1953), Zenciler Birbirine Benzemez (1957) and Kurtlar Sofrası (1963/64) were written with a social realist approach in terms of their content. In his first two novels, the author, who has a Kemalist and leftist thought, deals with the situation of the intellectual in search, while in Kurtlar Sofrası he tells the struggles of characters whose historical identity comes to the fore around their ideals. These struggles include the complex structure of the period before the coup d'état of 27 May, which has an important place in recent Turkish political history. Especially the governments of İnönü and Menderes, which paved the way for the formation of this complex structure, are criticised within the fiction of the novel. In Kurtlar Sofrası, Attilâ İlhan criticises the politicians' involvement in illegal activities, the wrong policies of the governments, their departure from Atatürk's Principles and Reforms, and their dirty relations with the media and power centres. In the three novels analysed, the discourses and actions of the protagonists are described in a way that reflects the characteristics of the period in which they lived. Attilâ İlhan constructed the protagonists of the novel within the framework of an understanding that reflects these periods. These people, who bear the responsibility of intellectuals, have experienced the agony of searching for and finding the true citizen, even though they have their own ups and downs. All three novels contain very rich materials in terms of their content in the context of sociology of literature. These materials are analysed in three chapters, each novel constituting a chapter, according to the theory of "Formative Structuralist Criticism". The novels subject to the chapters were analysed according to the two main headings of the "Formative Structuralist Criticism" theory, "Immanent and Transcendental Analysis", categorised under sub-headings and analysed. While analysing the novels, sample paragraphs appropriate to the theoretical framework were quoted. As a result of the study, it is seen that Attilâ İlhan's first novels, Sokaktaki Adam, Zenciler Birbirine Benzemez and Kurtlar Sofrası are works written with a social realist approach and reflecting the mentality of the period. As a result of the "immanent" and "transcendental" analyses of the novels, which were analysed according to the theory of "Formative Structuralist Criticism", it was seen that they have rich material on Turkey's recent past. In this study, the social and political panorama of the period is revealed by analysing the novels mentioned within a method with a clear theoretical framework.